On This Day: President Barack Obama talks with a young guest in the State Dining Room of the White House, during an event honoring the 2009 WNBA Champions Phoenix Mercury, July 19, 2010 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Morning Chips and good for you, Nerdy. We had some clamoring for first at the end of the last thread as the push against the door got a little crowded and I think CEB got the first call. Gotta run now to do some errands. Hope everyone has a good day, hope the president (is the First Lady at Camp David, too?) has a peaceful time, hope those studying the airline crash get full access today, hope the Israelis let up on the carnage and I hope WP decides to stay friendly today. Take care everyone and stay healthy!

Chipsticks, starting the morning with a picture of PBO with a young person (child or baby…doesn’t matter) is like having a good cup of java first thing. It helps to jump start the day with a great big smile. 😀

Thanks to you and NW and all TOD contributors for keeping our spirits lifted with all the positivity that is prevalent in the TOD village.

Good morning Chipsticks, amk 4 obama, jackiegrumbacher and TOD community at large,

IT’S A GORGEOUS DAY! WAKE UP and SMELL THE COFFEE, HEAR THE BIRDS CHIRPING, and CELEBRATE LIFE!

Wishing everyone an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL DAY FILLED WITH JOY,HAPPINESS, LAUGHTER, HUGS and LOTS OF SUNSHINE -ENJOY!

BLESSINGS!

“I say all the time that every moment we have to live our life is a blessing. So often I have found myself taking it for granted. Every hug from a family member. Every laugh we share with friends. Even the times of solitude are all blessings. Every second of every day is a gift. After Saturday evening, I know I truly understand how blessed I am for each second I am given.”

~ Jessica Redfield (Gwahi), a victim of the Aurora shootings on her last blog post before the incident describing a close call she had with death weeks before Aurora

HAPPY SATURDAY EVERYONE…DESPITE ALL THE CHAOS…I HOPE PBO IS RESTING SOMEWHAT…HE NEEDS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF ANY PEACE HE CAN GET…AT LEAST HE IS IN CONTROL AT CAMP DAVID. HOPE HE GETS A LONG WALK OR A SUPER BIKE RIDE!..I’M COOKING HOMELESS BBQ’D MEATBALLS THIS MORNING…SOON TO FIND A HOME IN SEVERAL TUMMIES ON PENN. AND VERMONT!…:)…HOW ABOUT THIS SCENARIO…FORK YOU REPUBLICANS!…I COULDN’T PASS IT UP!

BBQ’d meatballs sounds wonderful, kudos to you for helping those in need.

The young man in yesterday’s video of the Kid’s State Dinner who introduced Michelle Obama (and who brought her to tears when he said, “A wise Senator from Illinois…” and then echoed PBO’s iconic “There is not a black America or a white America…” speech by saying that he would work to ensure that there is not a rich America and a poor America.

Such a big-hearted young man, worth seeing on one of yesterday’s front pages (at the 1:21 mark of the video).

He’s the type of young person that who should work to get the message out that a high percentage of Fortune’s wealthiest earned their money the old-fashioned way, they inherited it. Also front-paged this week was John Oliver’s riff on how ridiculous America’s support of “No Estate Tax” is… in their gut, most Americans sense that the privileged youth in this country don’t need tax breaks from Uncle Sam, yet this support continues (no doubt because these same people think, “When I’m as wealthy as Bill Gates…”

We had a state by-election (a special election because one member resigned) and the RWNJ party – currently in power – suffered a massive defeat. Full election is due next year – so hoping they are a one term government. Among other things they have decided to bring in voter-id to fix a non-existent problem. I’ve been voting for 50 years and never had to do anything other than state my name/address. Will be interesting to get the figures on how many turned up without ID.

But the sad news – final figures on Australians on MH17 – now 36 – there were apparently some permanent residents (not on Oz passports) who were on board. So pointless and sad. Fortunately our pundits seems to have given up on McCain which is a relief.

Great news about the election 99ts, here’s to a repeat in the general election!

When we first learned of the number who died on that flight it was shocking enough, but now that we’re hearing their names and personal stories it’s just heartbreaking. What a pointless, horrible waste of life.

Enjoy the day Ms Chips – WP decided to hate on me this morning (my world) – wouldn’t even let me see the blog properly – so I’ve just been back checking out the WH Kids Dinner – FLOTUS will be an impossible act to follow – she excels at whatever she does.

I just sent myself into convolutions of laughter thinking of Bill Clinton hosting such events! About the only reason I would want Hillary to win would be to see Bill in action as FGOTWH

We see some parts of it differently and we react to some events in different ways. Physically up is down, night is day and the seasons are opposite when I compare the N & S hemispheres 🙂 It would be delightful if all parts of the world & all peoples in the different nations saw the world in the same way – but it has yet to happen.

I hope the US media is feeling good about themselves right about now. And that includes some of the so-called Libertarian Left who were cheering on the Putin/Snowden/Wald faction. Just a few months ago, they were egging on Putin, reporting how powerful he was vis-a-vis President Obama. They were applying their same childish, unprofessional partisan reporting to the world stage, not realizing that Putin is actually a loose cannon with very low self-esteem, and not a respected world leader.

On Thursday, War Room Tom tried to back-pedal and etch-a-sketch his previous twitter assertions about PBO being weak, once he realized what Putin had done. I pointed out to him the error of his ways and he got moderately annoyed with me and proceeded to tell me that I’m no different from a Teabagger (on Obama’s side). LMAO! But I kept rubbing it in because it needed to be done. War Room Tom haz a sad…Meanwhile, that CrowleyTime guy who had tweeted the pic of shirtless Putin vs. PBO on a bike with helmet is rather quiet about Russia/Putin now….no more pictures of his shirtless hero being tweeted….And as for Martha Raddatz, I’m sure that silly smirk she had must be permanently wiped off by now – not a peep from her about that airplane or Russia…

Good morning HF2.
Please do not let up and call them out every chance you get. I look forward to your tweets and post here.
I pray constantly for the families who are going through their tragic losses.
The so-called chicken shit LL and Putin lovers are hiding. They are cowards.
In their hearts they know they are cut from the same cloth as the Teabaggers.
They hide behind their BS because” Oh my, I have black friends.”
POB becoming President of these United States has pulled the covers off a lot of prejudice, hypocritical, racist, lying sitting on the fence complaining folks. Myself included. And I am a much grateful, humble, prayerful person in the midst of the storms that we will and still have to face.
Today I woke up still in love with HOPE.

Recovered from my heat stroke scare; drinking 1 gallon of water “every day.” I am an admitted “waterholic”, drinking when I’m not thirsty, when I wake up, and through out the day. : )

The scare last weekend with my neighbor being beaten by her husband; he is in jail until the hearing at the end of the month (blessing), and she is recovering. The lawyers are asking me to be a witness in court; feeling somewhat uneasy, but I have to do what is right and what is just. Fear is a paralyzer and I don’t want to live like that.

Following the news and feeling pain for the love ones who lost their family member(s) due to Putin and his entourage of murderers.
So much is happening in the world; so much grief, pain, suffering, and hate at every corner you turn. I pray for everything and pray that justice will be served.

How are you, and how is Mr.africa doing? I hope that each day is bringing in healing and joy for you all.
Wishing you and Mr.africa a WONDERFUL and BLESSED Saturday, and overall weekend, filled with joy, peace, hugs, kisses, and lots of love.

Oh, I am so sorry to hear about you being under the weather. Wow, DV is so prevalent in many homes, and lots of times, the victims suffer in silence. More often than none, it is about control. Once they can realize that and break free, for many it can be liberating. I hope for your neighbor that is the case. It is never wrong to do the right thing. My son tells me it is the Do Right Rule, he learned from his coach. I would be interested to know what happens after court and about your neighbor. Thanks for being in her corner. Hope she lets this guy go.

Good morning TOD. This has been a tough newsweek so I thought I’d write about some good news from New York State.

Governor Cuomo usually a DINO but here very effective settled a serious strike threat between the Long island Railroad and the Unions.
Cuomo settled the threatened strike 3 days before the deadline in an agreement that was welcomed by the hundreds of thousands who commute, the Union which had to give up very little in exchange for getting a lot, the MTA lately under siege caused by Christie & Co, and by the merchants, workers, tourists, who depend on the railroad for their lives to function smoothly.

Also a big winner was the deBlasio/Cuomo relationship. The Mayor, asked early on what he was doing to avert the strike said that The Governor will take care of it. A vote of confidence that paid off.

Meanwhile the equivalent of the WHPC was hoping to derail the de Blasio family vacation to Italy by having a crippling strike to harass him with.

The Strike didn’t happen.
Governor Cuomo’s re-election is assured.
The de Blasio family has by now arrived in Italy.
As I said—a good news story to cheer up Democrats!

A couple weekends ago I was distraught after having seen an “Impeach Obama” booth (complete with the photoshop poster of PBO with a Hitler mustache) at my local Target/Home Depot/Staples shopping center.

Good morning TODville. Don’t think anyone has talked about all the fires in Oregon, Washington, afew in Idaho, and Canada. We don’t have any in MT yet but we are getting all the smoke. I am having to keep the house closed up because of the smoke. Thank goodness we don’t have breathing problems. It is very dry in those places and don’t know when the fires will be under control. But there isn’t any climate change. Each month gets wamer.

Yesterday I went to a memorial service and today I go to a wedding. Such is the cycle of life.

Looks like most of the world knows that Putin is responsible for the plane. Wonder when we will hear from Germany, have we heard from France yet.

ENJOY your wedding; celebrate, dance a little, drink a little, laugh a lot and ENJOY the moment. This week has been tough for all. The fires in Washington State are horrific, entire town of 600 burned to the ground; sad and unbelievable pain. One guy was out of town and his neighbor phoned him to inform him that his entire home was gone.

Today, we all must live and laugh a little, we know all to well that tomorrow can bring more sadness – ENJOY!

So, so beautiful there, love the long twilights in the summer (fleeting twilights here further south).

A friend says the long twilit sunrises are awesome too — he grew up in Warsaw, Illinois, and used to go fishing as a child during the summer along the banks of the Mississippi. Sounds so idyllic, but he went off to the University of Iowa and left the shameless bigotry and self-righteous Bible-thumpers behind (his stories about his RWNJ brother and sister-in-law gives me some insight as to what the Obama coalition is up against — we’ll never win these folks over to our side).